


Perse Wants It.

by inconstancy



Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, all the animals are zeus, cute friend adventures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22043149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inconstancy/pseuds/inconstancy
Summary: Persephone has never been to a zoo before and this one promises something new and exciting.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	Perse Wants It.

Persephone had lucked out in the friend department, that was for sure. All she’d needed to do was quietly ask Hermes what was a zoo was on Thursday and he had immediately jumped from her desk to his feet, already orchestrating plans for them to go that Saturday. The only thing she had to go on in her building excitement was that she’d get to see lots of animals, including some from very far away from Sicily that she’d never had the opportunity to see while in the mortal realm. What _exactly_ that meant the red god had kept to himself, remaining tight lipped on the subject throughout the rest of the week.

But Saturday was finally here, and though they’d agreed he would meet her at Artemis’ front door (since she was being particularly sticky on the NO BOYS ALLOWED rule these days) at 11, it was 8 am when she’d woken up and found herself too excited to fall back asleep. She’d fallen asleep the night before clutching the small advertisement she’d ripped from a copy of the Weekly Nark that proclaimed **A NEW AND EXCITING EXHIBIT** at the Olympus Zoo, prompting her question in the first place. The square of black and white glossy paper contained no further information as to what the exhibit was, only that it was brand new and never before seen.

Wide awake and with no certainty of what the day’s events would include, other than the delightful prospect of animals, she’d combed through her closet several times while she tried to pace herself so she wouldn’t be ready and simply sitting there waiting for two hours. In the end, she’d decided on a (mostly) simple black dress that hit just above her knees, with lacy three-quarter sleeves that managed to leave most of her pink arms exposed. The contrast between her vibrant skin and the stark black fabric was a new experience for Persephone, having only recently broken away from her primarily white color palette as she spent more time around Hecate at work and had even spent one lunch break sitting beside Hecate at her desk while the goddess had done some online shopping. This particular dress was one of their many spoils of that day after Persephone had gasped at the look of the high lace collar and quietly breathed "I want it" under her breath. Hecate insisted it was a gift, though Persephone had insisted herself on buying lunch the day that she had arrived at work to find it in a neatly wrapped package on her desk.

She contemplated several pieces of jewelry, including the hair comb Hades had given her when they first met, but had put them all away at the end, opting instead to sprout several pale blue and yellow flowers in her hair as a soft accent to the dress. The finishing touch was a pair of black leather flats she’d pulled from the depths of her closet - she wasn’t sure _what_ capacity she would be seeing animals in, but it seemed better to err on the side of caution with her footwear choices. She ventured a glance at the clock on the wall.

8:45 am.

_Sugar snaps._

Somehow she managed to pass by the next two hours and by the time Hermes had arrived, she was literally hovering from her excitement build up. By the time they actually arrived at the large wrought iron gates that proudly proclaimed OLYMPUS ZOO overhead, the only thing keeping her even somewhat on the ground was his grip on her arm to keep her from floating too far away from him. Through the iron bars she could see what appeared to be large glass enclosures with no roofs and a variety of animals inside. A sign hung from the left gate echoing the same sentiment as the ad she’d found, **A NEW AND EXCITING EXHIBIT** with an arrow pointing to the right gate that stood ajar.

Persephone had slowly begun to drift back down towards the ground, her feet gingerly landing on the pavement as they approached the first glass enclosure. A bevy of swans milled around the terrain inside, some gracefully gliding along the water, others splashing and honking at the passerbys, and a few (mostly) quietly ones eating near the grass. A few children stood at one end of the enclosure, tapping rhythmically on the glass to gain the attention of the swans, their parents mostly ignoring them from a few feet away. At the other end of the enclosure, closest to the pair, was a rather large plaque.

**SWANS**

**King of the Gods’ favoured animal form**

In smaller text was a small blurb about the animals, detailing their mating and eating habits as well as their general habitat out in the wild, which Persephone could see had been artfully recreated within the enclosure. Indeed, as they continued their walk further in, stopping at every enclosure so Persephone could stare wide-eyed at all the creatures and read their significantly smaller plaques (other than the bull and eagle enclosures, both of which had larger plaques proclaiming them to be Zeus’ sacred animals, the peacock and cow having moderate but still small sized plaques for the Queen) she noticed that each enclosure was perfectly designed according to the needs of each species. A weight lifted from her shoulders that she had been unaware of holding as she came to realize that these animals were all well taken care of.

"Hermes?"

"Hmm?" Hermes was now holding her hand gently as they walked along the path marked by the large red arrows laid on the ground directing them towards the NEW AND EXCITING exhibit. Despite having clearly been here before from the way he identified each animal before they had gotten close enough to their plaques, he still had a look of giddy excitement to match her own as she ooh’d and ahh’d over the various animals, most of which she’d seen before but there were more new animals than she could count of her right (free) hand.

"Why are all these animals here?"

"Well, so you know about Zeus, right?"

"The swan thing? Mama told me once that Zeus becomes different animals sometimes while he’s ‘being a pig’ but that he isn’t an actual pig."

"Demeter is pretty on the nose," he laughed, nodding at her and tugging her away from a rather large brown creature with a plaque proclaiming it a **MOOSE**. "Although he may have been a pig once or twice. Just about very animal in here is one that Zeus has turned into. A few are rather… strange," he gestured towards what Persephone could best describe as a bird with very small wings that didn’t look all that capable of flapping, much less propelling the large beaked creature off the ground. This one was labelled **DODO** and the name was currently inspiring giggles in a group of young looking nymphs. "But plenty of them are perfectly normal like the swan or bull. I’d imagine whatever this new exhibit is, it’s probably closer to weird than normal. They don’t usually go all out for your run of the mill looking creature."

"I. Want. It." Persephone had a very serious look on her face as she stared at the creature in front of her. Hermes had helped her push her way to the very front of the enclosure, and the little pink goddess had not broken eye contact since they’d gotten there. It most closely resembled a very fat beaver, though instead of a mouth it had what appeared to be a duck’s bill in its place. As the creature headed into the small pond created for it’s enclosure that was snug up against the glass to allow for viewing inside the water, webbing made itself apparent between the toes, and indeed when it finally dove in, it glided around smoothly as it appeared to show off, doing small barrel rolls and then almost appearing to wave at Persephone as it passed by her, flipping its long tail.

"It’s called a pla-tuh-pus?" Hermes frowned as he looked at the plaque mounted on the glass. "Says here Zeus created the little guy just a couple weeks ago."

"I want it," she breathed out almost silently again as she continued to maintain eye contact.

"I dunno that you do, says here it’s venomous."

"So cute but deadly?" She finally tore her eyes away from the creature as it continued to dance about in the water, a mischevious smile on her face. Peeking out from the edges of her flowers were tiny red vines and a flash of red passed through her eyes before the vines shriveled up and fell nearly as quick as they’d come.

"I don’t think your mom wants you bringing home any weird Zeus creations."

"Of course not, I’d bring it to Artemis’. Retsina’s agreeable enough."

"Still, I think you’d better ask Artemis before bringing any weird creatures to her house. Or at least wait until I’m very far away."

"Don’t worry, Hermes. I wouldn’t let her stab you over an animal." Persephone slung her arm around his and grinned. "C’mon, I think I saw a little coffee cart by the… baboons?" Marching him away from the platypus enclosure, she ventured one last look over her shoulder as a wave of beings crowded into the space they’d left behind, small children oohing and ahhing as it swam about. _One day you’ll be mine, Platypus. Maybe Hades could convince his brother to make you a friend even._

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a Secret Santa gift for ChelzLor!
> 
> Big ups to les4love for helping me decide that 90% of the animals are animals created by Zeus as he attempts to stay lowkey in his never-ending cheating escapes. In case it wasn't obvious, the Dodo, Moose, and Platypus are all intended to fall under this umbrella. Look, Zeus gets around a lot of ground. Just go with it.
> 
> Also yes the title is fully a reference to the discord emote of Persephone staring at the computers - it's my favorite and also how I imagine she stares at the platypus.
> 
> Also also her little vines are meant to be an inside joke of sorts, I like to imagine while Persephone may not know that her mother paid off Hermes to keep her "act of wrath" quiet, he was either present for it or told that he would take care of it in an effort by Demeter to keep her quiet on the subject.


End file.
